It had an abbreviated oval-section monocoque fuselage, a shoulder-mounted semi-cantilever wing carrying split training-edge flaps over its entire span and was powered by two 450hp Renault 12roi 12-cylinder inline engines, projecting ahead of the fuselage nose.
The H.220 was designed around a C3 requirement issued by the Service Technique de l'Aeronautique (Technical Service of the Air Force) in October 1934. The contenders for that requirement were the Breguet 690 (which won the contract), the Potez 630, the Loire-Nieuport 20 and the Romano 110.
Soon became obvious that the aircraft would've been underpowered, so Hanriot chose to replace the Renault engines with two 680hp Gnome-Rhône 14M 14-cylinder radial engines and, with those engines installed, it made its maiden flight on 21st September 1937 at Avord, in France.
It was intended to be armed with two forward-firing 20mm cannons and two aft-firing 7.5mm MAC 1934 machine guns on a flexible mount but, no armament was mounted at all. On 17th February 1938 the prototype made a forced landing after losing the starboard propeller, following a failure in the reduction gearbox. The poor stability clearly showed during testing, combined with inadequate internal capacity and the lack of sturdiness forced a major redesign of the aircraft, resulting in the H.220-2 which, after Hanriot was nationalized, it became the SNCAC NC-600.
Sources:
1. http://www.aviastar.org/air/france/hanriot_h-220.php
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNCAC_NC-600
3. https://www.aviafrance.com/hanriot-h-220-aviation-france-50.htm (translated)
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